The looking-glass self is the process by which people evaluate themselves based on how others see them. According to this theory, people first imagine how they appear to others. Second, they imagine how others judge them based on that appearance. Third, people have an emotional reaction to that imagined judgment, such as pride or embarrassment.
What is the Looking Glass Self in psychology?
The Looking-Glass Self. The looking-glass self describes the process wherein individuals base their sense of self on how they believe others view them. Using social interaction as a type of “mirror,” people use the judgments they receive from others to measure their own worth, values, and behavior.
What does Goffman say about the Looking-Glass Self?
Although Goffman never explicitly mentions the looking-glass self, Goffman, like Cooley, focused on embarrassment as a social emotion (Scheff, 2005). Here, Goffman uses the imagery of theatre to draw comparison to the nuances of social interaction. The resulting theory of social interaction is called the dramaturgical model of social life.
What is Cooley’s Looking Glass Self?
by Sociology Group Charles Horton Cooley, in his work, Human nature and the Order, introduced the concept of “the looking glass self” in 1902. It can be explained as the reflection of what we think we appear in front of others or how we are viewed and conceived by others. Cooley used the term to explain the process of socialization.
What is the Looking-Glass Self in virtual environments?
A number of researchers have examined the looking-glass self in the context of virtual environments. Martey and Consalvo (2011), for example, studied the avatar appearances and subsequent behavior of 211 individuals in a roleplaying video game where players could create virtually any type of avatar as a means of expressing self-identity.
What is an example of the looking-glass self?
The looking-glass self definition states that a person's thoughts and feelings about themselves are formed based on the responses of others and their perception of how they appear to others. For example, a person may believe that they are very attractive because another person complimented their shirt or hair.
What are the 3 elements of looking-glass self?
Cooley distinguished three “principal elements” of the looking-glass self: “the imagination of our appearance to the other person; the imagination of his [sic] judgment of that appearance; and some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification.” Much of the time, Cooley thought, our experience of self is an ...
Is the looking-glass self accurate?
The looking-glass self theory is controversial for two reasons. First, this view supposes that people have a good idea of how significant others see them. Psychological research reveals that people's beliefs about how others see them are not very accurate.
What is an example of the looking-glass theory?
For example, on a dance floor, many people who see themselves as “good” dancers may in fact be perceived as “bad” dancers, but will nonetheless react as if they are good dancers. While individuals' self-image are shaped by others, this only happens through the mediation of their own minds.
What is the result of the looking-glass self process?
The result is that individuals will change their behavior based on what they feel other people think about them, even if not necessarily true. In this way, social interaction acts as a "mirror" or a "looking-glass," since one's sense of self and self esteem is built off of others.
What are three theories to explain the development of self?
To understand this topic, he developed a theory of moral development that includes three levels: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional.
What is our self-concept influenced by?
Each person's self-concept is influenced by context, meaning we think differently about ourselves depending on the situation we are in. In some situations, personal characteristics, such as our abilities, personality, and other distinguishing features, will best describe who we are.
What is the looking glass self?
The looking-glass self describes the process wherein individuals base their sense of self on how they believe others view them. Using social interaction as a type of “mirror,” people use the judgments they receive from others to measure their own worth, values, and behavior. According to Self, Symbols, & Society.
How is the looking glass self complicated?
The process of the looking-glass self is further complicated by the context of each interaction and the nature of the people involved. Not all feedback carries the same weight, for instance. People may take the responses from those whom they trust more seriously than those of strangers. Signals may be misinterpreted. People also usually take their own value systems into consideration when thinking through any changes to their behavior or views of self.
What is cyber self?
He or she may present a professional self on LinkedIn, a casual self on Twitter, or an artistic self on Pinterest . The cyber self also continues to exist in social spaces even when people are not interacting with those environments in real time.
How does looking glass self work?
The concept of looking glass self and its importance can also be seen through the growing social media. They act as the mirror to people where they seek for judgments and feedbacks from other people.
How does social interaction help with self identification?
In other words, social interaction plays a major role in the process of self-identification. The social interaction acts as a mirror that helps individuals to measure their worth, values, and behavior. This happens through three major steps.
What is the reflection of what we think we appear in front of others?
It can be explained as the reflection of what we think we appear in front of others or how we are viewed and conceived by others. Cooley used the term to explain the process of socialization. He viewed that the concept of self or one’s sense of identity comes not only from our direct contemplation of oneself, or the personal qualities ...
What is the looking glass self?
This is known as the looking glass self. This basically means that our self-image comes from our own self-reflection and from what others think of us. Cooley believed that it is through these interactions that one begins to develop an idea of who they are; therefore, the self is a product of our social interactions.
What is the theory of self?
Cooley's theory of self is one in which we learn who we are through our interactions with others. This is known as the looking glass self. This basically means that our self-image comes from our own self-reflection and from what others think of us. Cooley believed that it is through these interactions that one begins to develop an idea of who they are; therefore, the self is a product of our social interactions.
What is a positive reaction to a social mirror?
Using the 'social mirror' as a measurement of ourselves, a positive reaction from someone creates a positive self-concept; a negative reaction, a negative self-concept. Cooley states that this is a never-ending process, for we are always meeting new people and reevaluating ourselves based upon our impression of what they think of us.
What did Cooley want to understand?
Like many sociologists, Cooley wanted to understand society better. As mentioned earlier, Cooley found that the more advanced a society became, the more individualistic people became. He witnessed the breakdown of social cohesion and traditional family. He was convinced that it was the small, intimate groups which influenced behavior the most, ...
What is the looking glass self?
Cooley (1902) introduced the looking glass self as an individual’s self-concept defined, in part, by societal heuristics. Silvia and Phillips (2013) showed self-awareness (SA) was influenced by presenting stimuli that both explicitly increase SA (e.g., mirrors) and implicitly increase SA (e.g., name priming). Objective SA theory, coined by Duval and Wicklund (1972) and updated by Silvia and Duval (2001), stated SA could occur without explicit stimuli (Silvia & Phillips, 2013). Research has not yet addressed this prediction. The current study assessed the impact of increasing explicit SA on self-esteem by administering an adapted version of Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965) on reflective or non-reflective surfaces. 120 undergraduate participants (60 M, 60 F) were selected using purposive sampling and randomly assigned to complete the RSES on one surface. Attention was drawn to surface-type and responses were provided to RSES questions. A two-way ANOVA showed no difference in RSES scores by surface ( p = .348) or gender ( p = .271). These findings show the presence or absence of a reflective surface does not impact self-esteem, thus, the reflective surface did not influence SA. These results either suggest that SA does not directly impact self-esteem or the possibility of a need to find an alternate way of manipulating SA prior to assessing self-esteem.
Who developed the theory of the looking glass self?
Upon examination of Cooley’s theory of the looking glass self, Thomas Scheff developed a theory of emotions based on Cooley’s work (Scheff, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 2000, 2003). Scheff (1988) coined this theory the Cooley-Scheff conjecture. The Cooley-Scheff conjecture provided that one’s current emotional state was at least partially defined by how the individual felt assessed by others (Shaffer, 2005).
How is self-esteem defined?
For the purpose of the current study, self-esteem is defined as feelings about oneself based on the presence of implicit or explicit stimuli and self-perception is defined as the way an individual perceives themselves in the presence of these same implicit or explicit stimuli. The current study assessed the impact of increasing explicit self-awareness using an adapted version of the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965) printed on either a reflective (i.e., mirrored) or non-reflective (i.e., non-mirrored) surface on individual RSES scores. The purpose of the reflective surface was to increase self-awareness.
What is objective self awareness?
Objective self-awareness theory (Duval & Wicklund, 1972; Wicklund & Duval, 1971) represented the inception of the social psychology of self-awareness. Objective self-awareness theory takes into account the consequences of focusing attention on the self (Duval & Wicklund, 1972; Wicklund & Duval, 1971). The most common results of self-focused attention are, (1) conscious awareness can be established by directly focusing attention on oneself, and (2) when individuals experience this sense of conscious awareness, they begin to experience a sense of self-consciousness (Silvia & Gendolla, 2001). Placing an individual in front of a mirror is a common way to manipulate self-focused attention and, in turn, create conscious awareness of oneself (e.g., Carver & Scheier, 1978). The current study aimed to create a state of conscious awareness where self-focused attention was promoted via the use of a reflective surface.
What is the purpose of the reflective surface?
The purpose of the reflective surface was to increase self-awareness. Cooley (1902) introduced the looking glass self as an individual’s self-concept defined, in part, by societal heuristics. Cooley used the old English term for mirror, the looking glass, as a metaphor to describe an individual’s reflection of themselves in terms ...
Which study argued that self-esteem is best tested in naturally occurring groups?
Ichiyama (1993) and Cast et al. (1999) argue self-esteem is best tested in naturally occurring groups. Although it is arguable the population at a small liberal arts institution includes naturally occurring groups, the process of data collection in the current study required peers be split into small groups which may have disturbed natural group formation.
Who wrote the book "Opinion change and performance facilitation as a result of objective self-awareness"?
Wicklund , R.A., & Duval, T.S. (1971). Opinion change and performance facilitation as a result of objective self-awareness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7, 319-342.
How many views does looking glass have?
In order to produce holograms, Looking Glass provides up to 100 discrete views of a 3d scene and presents these views over a view cone roughly 50° wide. This arrangement of views tricks the visual perception system into seeing 3D objects in two major ways:
Why do you close one eye on a quilt?
The reason is that when you look at the display with two eyes, the yellow numbers behave in a perceptually confusing way. Closing one eye removes this confusion .
What plane does the sphere in the middle of the video show up in?
Objects that reside on the zero parallax plane don't move as the viewer moves their head around. For example, the sphere in the middle lies on this plane, meaning it shows up in the same pixel-space position for all 45 views.
What is the upside of layering?
The upside to this layering of views is that as your head moves around, you don't discretely hop from one view to the next, but instead, cross-fade amongst many. This makes the visual experience more fluid and natural.
Why is the sphere in the middle sharp?
The sphere in the middle looks sharp. This is because it exhibits zero parallax, so its pixel representation across many views remains consistent.
Can you read the Looking Glass demo?
This document can be read on its own, but if you'd like to be more interactive with it and see how these things look in person in your Looking Glass, download and run it here: windows / mac. While this demo was built using the HoloPlay Unity Plugin, the principles covered here apply to all Looking Glass content. The instructions for the interactive demo are:
What does the looking glass self mean?
What does the “looking glass self” mean? The looking-glass self theory suggests that we give signals out like radar, when people relate to the signals we put out. These positive signals bounce back to us similar to radar. How do feelings about the self influence specific brands people buy?
What are the three elements of the looking glass self?
Cooley distinguished three “principal elements” of the looking-glass self: “the imagination of our appearance to the other person; the imagination of his [sic] judgment of that appearance; and some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification.” Much of the time, Cooley thought, our experience of self is an
What is the theory of self?
Cooley’s theory of self is one in which we learn who we are through our interactions with others. This is known as the looking glass self. Cooley believed that it is through these interactions that one begins to develop an idea of who they are; therefore, the self is a product of our social interactions.
How is each person's self-concept influenced by context?
Each person’s self-concept is influenced by context, meaning we think differently about ourselves depending on the situation we are in. In some situations, personal characteristics, such as our abilities, personality, and other distinguishing features, will best describe who we are.
Who coined the term "looking glass self"?
According to sociologist Charles Horton Cooley, individuals develop their concept of self by observing how they are perceived by others, a concept Cooley coined as the “looking-glass self.” This process, particularly when applied to the digital age, raises questions about the nature of identity, socialization, and the
Who distinguished the self as "me" and "i"?
James (1890) distinguished two understandings of the self, the self as “Me” and the self as “I”. This distinction has recently regained popularity in cognitive science, especially in the context of experimental studies on the underpinnings of the phenomenal self.
Is the looking glass self theory backwards?
Some researchers have argued that this evidence implies that the looking-glass self theory is actually backward —it could be that people simply assume others see them the same way they see themselves.
Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- Another prominent and influential account of the self in sociology comes from Erving Goffman’s “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” (1959). Although Goffman never explicitly mentions the looking-glass self, Goffman, like Cooley, focused on embarrassment as a social emotion (Scheff…
Mead’s Conceptualization of Looking-Glass Self
- George Herberrt Mead's conception of socialization elaborated on Cooley’s foundation. Mead argued that the self involves two phases: the “Me” and the “I.” The Me is based on how someone sees others as seeing themself, while the I is one’s personal reaction to a situation. Someone forms their social self through an ongoing interaction between the Me and the I (McIntyre, 1998)…
Symbolic Interactionism and The Looking-Glass Self.
- The concept of the looking-glass self is associated with a school of sociology known as symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory that focuses on the meanings attached to individual human interactions as well as symbols. In the context of symbolic interactionism, humans define themselves in the context of their social interactions from the tim…
Critical Evaluation
- Research has consistently supported Cooley’s idea that people act based upon the perceptions they have of how others perceive them, rather than their actual responses. Felson (1981, 1985) studied a series of football players and primary-school students and found that the relationship between the perceived responses of others and the actual responses of others was reciprocal. …